Portable consumer and industrial electronics provide ever expanding levels of functionality to support modern life. This is especially true for devices such as navigation systems, cellular phones, portable digital assistants, and multifunction devices.
As the popularity of these portable consumer and industrial electronic devices increases, new applications, services, and products are developed to meet the diverse needs of the ever expanding population of users. One existing application is the use of location information to provide navigation and location-based information services, such as a global positioning service (GPS) navigation system, for a mobile device.
Portable electronic devices, such as navigation systems can provide navigation to a location based on a number of factors to meet the needs of a diverse population of users. Portable electronic devices can determine how to navigate to a destination so as to minimize the amount of time needed to travel to the destination or to minimize the distance needed to reach the destination. These devices are also capable of determining how to navigate to a destination so that the use of freeways is maximized or avoided or they can determine how to navigate to the destination so that toll roads are avoided or fuel is conserved.
Thus, a need still remains for a navigation system with an alternative route determination mechanism. In view of the ever-increasing commercial competitive pressures, along with growing consumer expectations and the diminishing opportunities for meaningful product differentiation in the marketplace, it is critical that answers be found for these problems. Additionally, the need to reduce costs, improve efficiencies and performance, and meet competitive pressures adds an even greater urgency to the critical necessity for finding answers to these problems.
Solutions to these problems have been long sought but prior developments have not taught or suggested any solutions and, thus, solutions to these problems have long eluded those skilled in the art.